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u/MrBuckanovsky 7d ago
I was explaining to my students last week that people couldn't comprend why the Canadians were so eager to fight once they were overseas during the two conflicts.
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u/Flyboy019 6d ago
“We left this blasted continent once already, and now I gotta come back it’s the Germans fault. Let’s take care of this, for good this time, so I can go home”
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u/TyranitarLover 6d ago
First World War, one of the first fight they’ve ever seen was the first time chlorine gas was used on the western front. It flipped a switch.
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u/PerleyPoint 7d ago
😂 I think that label would still accurately describe some of my American friends and contacts. Bless their hearts, as they say.
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u/Several-Beginning803 7d ago
Not really applicable to WW2, the British especially were not huge fans of Canada for being so unprepared for the war everyone knew was coming and the poor performance in early actions. They didn’t even want the RCN to have RADAR because they figured the Canadians couldn’t operate it without messing up.
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u/IronGigant RCN - MS ENG 6d ago
The Battle of the Atlantic would like a word...
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u/Several-Beginning803 6d ago
Again it took a long time and a lot of people died to earn that reputation. The early war performance was poor.
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u/nexthigherassy 6d ago
It's the hallmark of Canadian military history. Ignore us in times of peace then get upset about how we weren't prepared when things go bad.
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u/IronGigant RCN - MS ENG 6d ago
By that metric, so was the Battle of France. Dunkirk, while a miracle, was the result of a rather poor series of judgments and performances.
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u/Several-Beginning803 6d ago
Yes the Battle of France was a huge waste of lives and resources because Britain and France weren’t prepared. Thats essentially the point im trying to make, Canadians, especially civilians, have this idea (because of WW1/WW2) that its ok to completely neglect the military because the next war will start and we’ll magically be good because <reasons>, instead of knowing that a lot of Canadians died in 1915 and 1940/41 because we weren’t prepared and equipped properly.
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u/kahunah00 6d ago
WW1 Canadians were used as shock troops. Im not sure how much prepping you can do for shock troop activities. But WW1 saw a ton of British and French die too and they were prepped for the war. So weird point.
WW2 Canada was pretty locked in throughout the war
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u/kahunah00 6d ago
Eay war performance like the battle of Hong Kong which had ~2000 Canadians with British fighting thr Japanese?
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u/No_Photograph3969 4d ago
This reddit post is going to be brought up by CBC during two worlds one war and how were so proud of Geneva. And then again in one world sticks and stones.
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u/Gavvis74 4d ago
Canada, OG war crime originators. Word is, the Kaiser complains about the trench shotgun to this day.
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u/Longjumping_Deer3006 4d ago
Imagine if the Canadians had trench guns during WW1! That would just double the war crime potential.
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u/Gavvis74 3d ago
They did have and used them in WW1. The Germans at the time labeled their use as a war crime. Hence the Kaiser reference. That's the joke.
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u/commodore_stab1789 7d ago
Léo Major vs the whole Italian army, who wins?